In recent months, Venezuelan authorities under President Nicolas Maduro have reportedly detained a number of American citizens, a development that comes amid heightened tensions sparked by US President Donald Trump’s intensified actions against the Venezuelan government.

Among those arrested are three individuals who hold dual citizenship as Venezuelan-Americans, as well as two Americans with no apparent connections to Venezuela. A federal official, who preferred to remain anonymous, shared these details with The New York Times.

While some of these individuals are facing legitimate criminal charges, the United States is contemplating classifying at least two of them as ‘wrongfully detained’ to facilitate their release, according to the same federal source.

One such individual is James Luckey-Lange from New York. His family reported him missing shortly after he crossed into the southern border of Venezuela in December, believing his detention to be unjust.

Luckey-Lange, aged 28, is the son of Diane Luckey, a musician renowned for her 1988 hit “Goodbye Horses,” performed under the stage name Q Lazzarus. The Times reported that Luckey-Lange is known for his adventurous spirit, with a passion for travel and a background in amateur martial arts. He also spent some time working in commercial fishing after completing his college education.

Those who know Luckey-Lange told the Times how he is a travel enthusiast and an amateur martial arts fighter who worked in commercial fishing for a period after graduating college. 

Following the death of his mother in 2022, Luckey-Lange decided to embark on a long trip across Latin America.

‘I’m leaving and I won’t be back for a long time,’ he posted on Instagram ahead of his trip around the world. ‘I may never be back. I may find something in the rest of the world that I couldn’t find here. I may die out there.

‘When I get back I may be different, hopefully for the better,’ he said. 

James Luckey-Lange, 28, of New York, is being detained in Venezuela

Venezuelan security forces have been detaining more and more Americans amid President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on the country

Luckey-Lange has since been sharing photos and videos from his voyages on Instagram and was updating a blog.

He wrote in early December that he was doing research on gold mining in the Amazon region of Guyana, which borders Venezuela.

Then on December 7, Luckey-Lange wrote that he was in Venezuela, and his family said they last spoke to him the following day.

At that point, they said, Luckey-Lange said he was heading to Caracas, where he was planning to catch a flight on December 12 that would eventually bring him home to New York.

His aunt Abbie Luckey said she has not been contacted by US officials and is seeking any information about his whereabouts.

It is unclear whether he had a visa to enter Venezuela, as the country’s law requires of American citizens. 

At least two other people with ties to the United States remain imprisoned in Venezuela, according to their families: Aidal Suarez, 37, a US permanent resident who was born in Cuba, and Jonathan Torres Duque, 26, a Venezuelan-American.

Suarez had traveled from the US to Puerto Rico and then Trinidad to marry his fiancee on December 24, 2024, according to social media accounts, which noted that ‘he even carried their wedding rings.’

But when he entered into Venezuela, he was detained. 

On December 7, Luckey-Lange wrote that he was in Venezuela, and his family said they last spoke to him the following day

Others who are detained include Aidal Suarez, 37, a US permanent resident who was born in Cuba (left), and Jonathan Torres Duque, 26, a Venezuelan-American (right)

Duque’s mother, Rhoda Torres, also told the Times her son returned to the country after the family had been living in the US for nearly a decade.

She now believes her son was detained based on his athletic build and American accent.

‘They said he was an American spy,’ Torres said, noting that her son is now being held with foreigners of many nationalities.

‘There are still a lot of them there. They’re all political prisoners.’

‘This has to stop,’ she pleaded. 

Maduro has been known to detain Americans, whether guilty or innocent of serious crimes, as bargaining chips in negotiations with DC.

They are often held in unsanitary conditions, with Peruvian-American Renzo Huamanchumo Castillo telling how he was routinely beaten and received only one liter of muddy water every day while detained in a notorious prison called Rodeo I.

‘It was the worst thing you could imagine,’ said Castillo, who was freed in a prisoner exchange in July after being detained last year and charged with terrorism and conspiring to kill Maduro.

‘We realized afterward, I was just a token,’ he lamented. 

President Donald Trump has previously negotiated the release of Americans detained in Venezuela with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

In recent months, the US has been ramping up its military presence in the region

But Trump has made the release of Americans held overseas a priority of his two administrations, even sending his envoy, Richard Grenell, to Venezuela to negotiate a prisoner deal days after the start of his first term.

The ensuing negotiations resulted in the release of 17 American citizens and permanent residents held in Venezuela.

But when the Trump administration then decided to suspend those talks in favor of a military and economic pressure campaign against Maduro put an end to the prisoner releases.

Instead, the Maduro administration has been increasingly detaining Americans as the US deployed a naval armada in the Caribbean and the start of airstrikes against boats that federal authorities say transport drugs under Maduro’s orders.

The US further escalated its pressure campaign on Venezuela this month, targeting tankers carrying Venezuelan oil – thereby paralyzing the country’s major export.

President Trump has even seemingly confirmed that the US conducted a land strike in the Latin American country.

He said that a Christmas Eve strike was on a facility ‘where the ship comes from’ – seemingly referencing the origination location of the alleged drug vessels that the US military has been targeting in the Caribbean and Atlantic over the last three months.

Speaking on WABC on December 26, Trump made the bombshell suggestion that US forces have already started conducting land operations in Venezuela. 

‘I don’t know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or a big facility where they send the – where the ships come from,’ Trump said during a call-in with radio host and billionaire John Catsimatidis, who was filling in for Sid Rosenberg.

‘Two nights ago we knocked that out – so we hit them very hard,’ Trump confirmed.

Now, ‘Maduro is playing with fire trying this approach with the Trump administration,’ said James Stavridis, a retired admiral and the former head of the Pentagon’s Southern Command.

‘It will only spur Trump to further escalate and is unlikely to cause him to back down in the least.’ 

The report on the newly-detained Americans came as the State Department announced sanctions on four entities it said were ‘illegally operating in Venezuela’s oil sector’ on Wednesday.

‘The Trump Administration is also blocking four associated oil tankers, part of a shadow fleet that funds Nicolas Maduro’s illegitimate, corrupt regime and allows Maduro and his cronies to evade sanctions,’ the State Department said.

‘Today’s sanctions continue President Trump’s pressure campaign on Maduro and his cronies,’ it continued, saying the Trump administration ‘is committed to disrupting the network that props up Maduro and his illegitimate regime.’

The US Treasury Department also said that some of the tankers that were stopped or interdicted by American forces are part of a fleet comprising dozens of ships that use shell companies and flags of convenience to evade US sanctions and international laws.

‘These vessels, some of which are part of the shadow fleet serving Venezuela, continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s illegitimate narco-terrorist regime,’ the department said.

‘Maduro’s regime increasingly depends on a shadow fleet of worldwide vessels to facilitate sanctionable activity, including sanctions evasion and to generate revenue for its destabilizing operations.

‘Today’s action further signals that those involved in the Venezuelan oil trade continue to face significant sanctions risk,’ the department added. 

Daily Mail has reached out to the State Department for comment.